The LABTER

The LABTER (Laboratorio Territoriale - Territorial Laboratory) of the Natural Reserve of Lake Vico belongs to the network of environmental education of the Regione Lazio (one per province), which falls into the network of European territorial laboratories of Agenda 21.

It consists of one computer laboratory, one multi-media classroom, one scientific laboratory and one exhibition room.

This facility is intended for the cultural-naturalistic promotion and valorization of the area and for the environmental and civic education.

It is one of the most active of its kind and every year, in collaboration with the ARP (Agenzia Regionale Parchi - Parks Regional Agency), it provides educational services to schools, local communities and all the visitors; moreover, it promotes both campaigns to increase public awareness and knowledge of the protected area, and operations to safeguard the natural resources of the territory in a perspective of sustainable development.

The LABTER is administered by the staff of the Reserve and by experts in environmental education.

The educational activities, carried out within a protected area with multiple values, offer the disciplines various didactic clues. Being able to distinguish one tree from another means to be able to understand the story of its life; being able to read the territory means to be able to read an ancient book that, page after page, describes what happened in the past.

Plunging into these activities allows us to feel part and parcel of nature and to develop respect and love for everything around us.

Therefore, the protected area turns into an open-air classroom where the Foresters show the most important aspects that must be pointed out by the teachers.

THE FACILITIES

Computer Lab

This laboratory aims at developing and putting the didactic and educational services of the Lazio Regional Parks on the Internet. The computer system allows students and teachers to get information in the same way they would through internet. The data bank consists of text and image files, and didactic and multi-media scientific tables.

Multi-media Classroom

This structure acts as conference room, projection room and didactic room. The Reserve makes it available to carry out educational activities, seminars and open-door meetings.

Scientific Lab

It is called the "laboratory for experiments", and its function is to personally involve the user arousing his/her curiosity and interest, both through a series of direct obeservations of the animal and vegetal world, and through real manual experiences.

To that end, the laboratory is equipped with stereomicroscopes and fibre-optic microscopes to reveal forms and structures to display on video terminals, allowing everybody to watch them simultaneously.

It is possibile to observe, handle and reproduce (in plaster casts) a series of zoological, vegetal and geological finds.

Exhibition Room

It is furnished with dioramas reproducing typical environments of the Reserve, as the marsh, the beechwood, the cultivated lands, and with monothematic show-windows dedicated to "The birds of prey of Lake Vico", set in different environments.

The representations consist of pictorial reproductions and three-dimensional reconstructions showing the species of diurnal and nocturnal predators that live and/or nidify within the protected area.

The opening hours of the exhibition room and the other facilities of the LABTER coincide with the office hours of the premises of the Reserve.